CVTC students install osprey platform at Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area

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By LeAnn R. Ralph

Editor’s Note: LeAnn R. Ralph serves on the Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area Management Committee.

COLFAX — Students from the Chippewa Valley Technical College’s electrical power distribution program got some practical experience when they installed an osprey nesting platform at the Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area on January 31.

Ospreys, sometimes called fish hawks, are raptors well adapted for catching fish. They are summer visitors in Wisconsin, and their habitat includes lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

“A few months ago I talked with a friend of mine, Jeanette Kelly, who is the Citizen Science and Education Director at Beaver Creek (Reserve) as well as a bird expert,” said Katherine Stahl, a Town of Colfax resident who is chair of the CRCPRA Management Committee.

“After talking with her about the Citizen Science kestrel monitoring, we talked about the possibility of an osprey platform at the Preserve. She was encouraging about the idea and suggested contacting Xcel to see if they would help install a pole,” Stahl said.

“I spoke with our neighbor, who is a lineman with Xcel …  He, too, was enthusiastic about the idea; however, his supervisor [told him] they wouldn’t be able to do that,” Stahl said.

Since Xcel would be unable to install the platform, Stahl approached a local cooperative that supplies electrical power.

“The next step was to call Dunn Energy whose staff said they wouldn’t be able to install a pole but he recommended calling CVTC,” she said.

CVTC

After receiving the suggestion to check with CVTC, Stahl went on-line and found the Electrical Power Distribution Program, which resulted in a conversation with Jon Ocker, an instructor in the program. 

“I felt a little sheepish asking him if he could help us with installing the pole, as that seemed like a big ask. Upon telling Jon we are exploring installing an osprey platform, and we wondered if he could help, his one word response was ‘sure,’” she said.

“I asked where we could find a utility pole, and he asked if we would be okay with a used pole or did we need a new one. My response was a used one would be just fine,” Stahl said. 

“Since I was asking for a 30 foot pole, he asked if we’d be okay with a 35 foot pole, which of course would be great. Then I asked how deep we would need to dig the hole for the pole. His response, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ll do that,’” she said.

“All of this left me speechless for a moment. His generous responses were amazing. Literally the only request he made was to clear the snow if it would be deep on the date of the install. Obviously that wasn’t a problem,” Stahl said.

So far, the 2023-2024 winter season in western Wisconsin has been remarkably warm and lacking in precipitation, other than an inch or two of snow here and there and a few rain showers.  “After getting the pole installation in place, Kate Schindler, who is a wildlife biologist and friend of our daughter, gave us some osprey platform designs. Keith Gilland, Mark Mosey and Lee Boland from the Preserve Management Committee chose the design and spent a Saturday afternoon building the platform,” Stahl said.

“(The) installation went smoothly, and the students executed it very professionally. Jon Ocker, the CVTC instructor, explained the Electrical Power Distribution Program is an eight-month program at the end of which the students receive their diploma and move onto a four-year apprentice program with various employers,” she said.

Platform

The osprey platform would not have become a reality without the work of three members of the CRCPRA Management Committee.

Lee Boland, a retired surveyor who lives in the Town of Colfax, downplayed his role in building the osprey platform.

“For me building the platform was easy. I provided a work space, some tools, nails, some 2×6 lumber and a piece of angle iron, and two strong younger guys sawed it out and hammered it together,” Boland said.

“What is surprising is how those tech school guys kind of effortlessly got the thing thirty feet in the air and fastened it up there,” he said.

The Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area posted photographs on Facebook of the installation.

“That platform is a beast. Good job in wrangling it up there!” Keith Gilland wrote in the comments section.

Gilland is a professor in the biology department at UW-Stout.

Mark Mosey, also part of the crew that built the platform, retired from his position as a biology teacher at Colfax High School several years ago.

Boland, Gilland and Mosey built the platform December 16, 2023. 

“Access to Lee’s workshop, with all the needed space and power tools, made the construction of the nest box platform go smoothly,” Mosey said, noting that the design plan was provided by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 

“(We) framed out the nest box using treated 2x6s. Hardware cloth was stapled onto the bottom of the nest platform where short tree branches will be wired in to give the osprey a head-start on nest building. Diagonal angle iron supports were also fabricated and were attached to the platform on installation day. An eight-foot perching board was also added to the side of the platform,” he said. 

Ospreys

According to an eagle and osprey nest survey conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in 2019, Dunn County had zero osprey nests, although to the north, Polk County had 26 osprey nests and Barron County had 15. 

To the west of Dunn County, St. Croix County had five osprey nests, and to the east of Dunn County, Chippewa County had six osprey nests, while Eau Claire County had three osprey nests.

But even though Dunn County apparently had zero osprey nests in 2019, osprey have been spotted at the Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area in the years since the survey.

“With an abundance of fish present in the Ferry Pond, it makes sense that the pond would be used by osprey and bald eagles,” Mosey said.

“During the spring and summer of 2022 and 2023, ospreys were observed using the pond to fish and perch. The birds could then be seen flying south/southwest,” he said.

“On one occasion, the bird stopped to perch on the light standards along the Colfax High School football field. The birds continued their flight headed in the direction of Tainter Lake. With this in mind, the land surrounding the pond seemed like suitable habitat that may encourage ospreys to nest if they were provided a nest platform,” Mosey said.

In addition to being the home of Ferry Pond, two-thirds of the approximately 150-acre Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area is surrounded by the Red Cedar River. 

According to an article published in the Green Bay Press Gazette in May of 2018, like the bald eagles, ospreys nearly became extinct because of pesticide use, such as DDT, and in 1972, the Wisconsin DNR listed the species as endangered.

In 2016, there were 560 nesting pairs of osprey, and 80 percent of them were using nesting platforms. The low record number of nesting ospreys was 82 breeding pairs in 1974, according to the article. 

There were 535 occupied osprey nests statewide, while a total of 1,684 bald eagle nests contained breeding adults, according to the DNR’s 2019 count of osprey and bald eagle nests.

Identification

Since osprey and bald eagles can be found in the same habitat, they are sometimes mistaken for each other. 

Bald eagles are larger than osprey.

A bald eagle has a dark body, white head and white tail, and flies with wings straight out, with no bend in the wings.

Ospreys are dark on top and are white on the underside. Their tails are not solid white, but rather, are alternating brown and white bands. 

An osprey has a white head, but instead of entirely pure white, the osprey has a brown band going from the eye to the neck. Their beaks are dark with a strong hook. And when they fly, they have a bend in their wings.

The osprey’s call is a high-pitched short whistle.

According to A-Z-animals.com, an osprey can weigh up to nearly five pounds, while a bald eagle can weigh up to 15 pounds.

An osprey eats fish almost exclusively, while a bald eagle will eat fish, small mammals and waterfowl. 

Bald eagles also are carrion eaters and will pick at dead carcasses.

Many people in this area have probably seen a bald eagle picking at a deer carcass along the side of a road.

To learn more about the Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area, located on state Highway 170 just north of Colfax, visit the Preserve’s website at www.redcedarpreserve.com.

And next summer if you find yourself spending some time at the Preserve, keep an eye out for ospreys as well as waterfowl, song birds and other animals.

When you see the nesting platform, think of the CVTC students and their instructor, Jon Ocker. Think of Lee Boland, Keith Gilland and Mark Mosey, too.

Without all of their efforts, there would not be an osprey nesting platform at the Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area — and we would not have an opportunity to encourage an osprey nesting site in Dunn County.